Soldiers, before during and after foreign wars
Viet Nam War The Viet Nam War was by no means the first to face opposition from the citizens of the country instigating it. Some soldiers have always felt remorse for killing. And American soldiers in Vietnam were not the first to see injustice in the conduct and rationale for the war. But these viewpoints were extremely exaggerated, not least because of the galactic scale of increase in the amount of information available to them. Not merely newspapers and radio; pop songs were screaming the demand of the populace to end an unjust war. And yet the injustice was set in sharp relief by the lack of a rationale, the paucity of ethos behind the bloody conflict. Howard Zinn (WP) argues this with an example in which the soldiers in a POW camp formed a peace committee as they wondered who the enemy of the war was, because it certainly was not known among them.Howard Zinn, A People's History of the United States Page 496 The statement of one of the soldiers reads, Until we got to the first camp, we didn't see a village intact; they were all destroyed. I sat down and put myself in the middle and asked myself: Is this right or wrong? Is it right to destroy villages? Is it right to kill people en masse? After a while it just got to me.Howard Zinn, A People's History of the United States Page 496 Significant advances in technology and photography, and the superior mobility of the US forces' mobility by means of helicopter and jet plane, lead to Viet Nam being the most widely photographed war in history, before or since. During Viet Nam, photography and film of the war was a major contributor to opposition to United States involvement in the Vietnam War. After Viet Nam, the ruling class, with nothing better to do with their time than spend money and plan strategy, learned from the VN threat to their rule and instituted stricter censorship. The soldier in Viet Nam was somewhat disproportionately a person of color, and black soldiers were more likely to die.Modern American Poetry - African Americans in the Vietnam War, John Sibley Butler In the early part of the war, they were, as in the population, a minority. After 1966, the US instituted a program: :''"'Project 100,000,' a Great Society program launched in 1966, attempted to enhance the opportunities of underprivileged youths from poverty-stricken urban areas by offering more lenient military entrance requirements. It largely failed. Although more than 350,000 men enlisted under Project 100,000 during the remainder of the war, 41 percent were African American and 40 percent drew combat assignments. Casualty rates among these soldiers were twice those of other entry categories. Few Project 100,000 inductees received training that would aid their military advancement or create better opportunities for civilian life." The Vietnam horror for black people was not only being called to die in the name of the United States, but the crushing weight of every inequity and violence inflicted on their society, by other societies in their country, inequities that before, during and after the war, were challenged by mostly people of color, but all colors, in the Civil Rights Movement. Viet Nam was one of the last wars in which deaths occurred in equal parts from lacerations and concussive, internal organ damage from explosives. Following VN, the extensive use of flak jackets protected soldiers from shrapnel, and deaths were disproportionately from the internal organs being bruised so severely that they are mashed, like meat that is tenderized. An urban legend sprung up that American soldiers were spat upon and insulted by antiwar protesters upon returning home from the Vietnam War. The myth is widespread; consider the lyrics to the hit single, "19": "None of them received a hero's welcome"Wikipedia:The Spitting Image An analysis of the widely believed, but historically inaccurate, urban legend that American soldiers were spat upon and insulted by antiwar protesters upon returning home from the Vietnam War Myth: Spitting Vietnam Protester Had they in fact done so, it is arguable that this would be an appropriate protest against the soldiers' involvement in an unjust war. There was little chance of an informed public being able to miss the injustice; Vietnam had been colonized by the French in 1854. One hundred years later, the Vietnamese won a victory and were granted by the [[1954 Geneva Conference] (WP) the right to hold elections in 1955, only to lose the country again in a US supported land grab that broke multiple mandates of the Agreement. The Vietnam situation was ongoing since long before the US broke the treaty again and sent troops in. Conscientious objectors, "draft dodgers" and student deferments were part of public discourse. Uneducated, propagandized Americans, subject to US laws commanding military service in The Draft, were easy enough prey, but it is not as if they did not have the opportunity to escape. Gallery Links See also * Smedley Butler * Robert F. Williams (WP) 'The first anti-war “podcast” directed at US troops was by civil rights hero Robert F Williams, who broadcast from Vietnam to Black troops on the frontlines—telling them no matter what they “sacrifice for America” in a racist war, all that’s awaiting you at home is the same racism' https://twitter.com/EyesLeftPod/status/1133878940215341056?s=19 Category:Soldiers Category:United States Army soldiers Category:War Category:Anti-war Category:American anti-war activists Category:Soldiers against regime change Category:Soldiers against war Category:Pacifism